• Chapter One
    Safron searched the wide hall frequently. There were so many people yet she continued to scan the group of people. She had to find him before anyone else did yet she dare not call out to him. She couldn’t draw attention to herself or him not in a place as populated as this. “Giotto,” she hissed under her breath. “Where are you?”
    She looked around again when someone else caught her attention. It was a man that looked to be twenty. He had long jet black hair that was tied back into a ponytail. He eyes matched the color of his eyes. He was tall and pale yet well built. He squinted as he looked through the crowd as well.
    Safron quickly turned away from him. She wanted to run away but managed to contain herself to a fast walk. She tried to use the other people as a wall between her and this man. She knew him all too well. He was Mr. Dantes, or at least that is what she had grown to call him. He was hunting her and Giotto. She had to find Giotto and she had to find him fast. She snuck a glance over her shoulder. Her and Mr. Dantes’ eyes meet. She quickly looked away and maneuvered through the crowd, trying to get away from him.
    Mr. Dantes had seen her. He quickened his pace to try and catch her. Safron glanced over her shoulder, he was gaining on her. She looked at all the people walking the opposite direction of her. “Get in his way,” she told no one in general yet they all started to obey. None of them had show any sign of agreeing or even acknowledging what she said yet they still did what she told them to. They formed an even greater wall between her and Mr. Dantes. He started shoving people out of the way; he was desperate to reach her but it was futile. He managed to get past them yet Safron had told more people to get in his way. He was afraid he was going to lose her, she was too far ahead.
    More people crowded around him. She was leaving him behind; the distance between them was growing. He could just barely see her when someone ran into him, knocking him over. The person apologized yet Mr. Dantes didn’t seem to hear or care. He pushed the man away in frustration. He jumped to his feet to look for Safron. She was gone from his sight. He desperately looked around the hall. “No!” he yelled aloud. Once again she had escaped from him. Now what was he suppose to do?
    Safron stood against a wall out of Mr. Dantes’ sight. She rested there, catching her breath. She heard Mr. Dantes’ shout of frustration and she smiled to herself; he had lost her. For now, she was safe. She was glad she had told that man to run into Mr. Dantes, it gave her the perfect opportunity to hide from him. She pushed herself off the wall and left her temporary victory there. She still had to find Giotto and she was no closer now then when she had seen Mr. Dantes. She joined another crowd, resuming her search.
    “Are you okay boy? You’re bleeding,” a woman said off in the distance. This made Safron stop. She began walking to the source of that voice.
    “I’m fine,” a boy answered. Safron recognized the voice, it was Giotto. She quickened her pace and began slipping trough what gaps in the crowd she could find. Finally she spotted him. He was down on one knee, holding his arm. His breaths were heavy and labored. There was a woman leaning over him. She was young and pretty but he face was full of concern.
    “Giotto,” Safron said in relief, she had found him. She couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her face.
    “Safron,” he replied in a shocked tone. He wasn’t expecting to meet her here. Their meeting place was still a way off. He didn’t expect her to find him this far away from it.
    “Are you okay? We need to keep moving, can you stand?” Safron asked. Panic and worry mixed in her voice.
    “I, I think,” Giotto managed to say. He tried to stand but his face twisted in pain and he fell back down onto his knee. Safron knelt beside him and offered him her shoulder.
    “Here, lean on me. Let me help you up.” Safron took his arm and draped it across her shoulders. She secured her arm around his lower back. She turned to the women who now looked both confused and worried. “Thank you for your concern,” Safron said politely. “Now go and forget about anything related to the two of us.”
    The woman did exactly that. A blank look covered her face as she stood up and began walking away from them. She didn’t once look back, she continued on as if nothing happened. Slowly, Safron and Giotto stood up. Giotto was leaning heavily on Safron. She felt weak and light headed from all she had to do to get away from Mr. Dantes. Safron swayed a little from her fatigue and the strain of Giotto’s weight.
    “You shouldn’t use your power that much,” Giotto whispered in a teasing voice yet his eyes showed the true concern he felt.
    “And what about you? I doubt these wounds were because you tripped,” Safron snapped back in a playful tone.
    A sly smile slid across Giotto’s face. “I guess were two of a kind then. At least Zellal will be mad at both of us.”
    A small smile appeared on Safron’s face before she looked away. “We have to get back to him first though.” Zellal was Giotto’s and Safron’s friend and leader. The only thing tying these three together was the fact that they all had a power of some sort.
    Safron had the power to command as she called it. She could tell a person or object to do anything and the person or object had to obey her and do as she said. She could only command a person if it was physically possible. She tried to command someone back from the dead once but she could not do it. Yet she could command objects to do the impossible. Even if it was physically possible, the harder the task was to complete for the person the more of the strain she was put under. The worst curse of her power was the way she had to watch how she spoke to people. Even if she didn’t want to she could accidentally command someone. If her words could be taken as a command in any way then the person she was talking to had to obey her. While she could revoke the command she still made a promise to herself to never command any of her friends. She wanted them to act by their own choice. The one person she would never command, not even in emergencies, was Zellal. Her respect for him was too great.
    She had short brown hair and beautiful dark blue eyes to complement it. She was often told she had a natural beauty but she didn’t care much for this. She wore no make-up and often time did little to style her hair. She was tall for her age, petite, and looked older then she acted. Her true age, along with Giotto’s, was 16.
    Giotto had the power to control the elements. He was the only one of the three that a power that allowed him to fight. This was because he used to be with Mr. Dantes and his team. Once, when he was pursuing Zellal and Safron, he fell into a trap Zellal laid for him. Zellal had planned to kill him but before he could Safron commanded him to forget about everything relating to Mr. Dantes and come with them. Zellal was against the idea of having Giotto with them at first but it worked out perfectly. Giotto had saved both of them a number of times.
    He had short, dirty blond hair. He had deep green eyes that would change shades as in the sun. He was the strongest of the three and had the well defined muscles and broad shoulders. He wasn’t tall for his age yet he wasn’t short either. Due to his well defined body and deep voice he was often mistaken for being old then he truly was. Often times people thought he was older then Zellal.
    Zellal had the power to read other’s minds and project his thoughts into their minds as well. He was also smart, extremely smart. That’s exactly why he was their leader. He was the best at coming up with strategies and keeping them safe. He had meet Safron when she was running away from Mr. Dantes’ team after they had killed her family. He helped her for totally selfish reasons at first. He had just escaped from Mr. Dantes’ Institution where he had spent the last four years. The Institution had left him broken and heartless. He saw Safron’s fear to be troublesome. But over time her kindness began to heal what the Institution had done to him. He had desperately wanted to be whole again. Over the last four years he had spent with her he had regained who he was. Zellal had grown close to Safron and Giotto during the time he spent together with them. He truly thought of them as being closer then family and so he vowed to forever protect them from the Institution. The thought of them going through what he did made him physically sick.
    He had long amber hair that reached to the nape of his neck. He had the most beautiful light blue eyes. He was almost always calm and hardly ever let his emotions get the best of him. He had muscle but wasn’t as well built as Giotto. While he was the oldest, being 18, he didn’t look it. He was the tallest but his beauty and more slender body made people mistaken him for being younger then Giotto. But at this moment the stress he was feeling mad him look five years older.